Comments on: Judge Ruled that Pringles Aren’t Potato Chips (For Tax Purposes, Anyhow)

By: lionheart

lionheart — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:01:43 +0000

If it’s not a potato chip, what is it? It’s crunchy and it tastes like a potato chip. Weird.

By: Skipweasel

Skipweasel — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:58:44 +0000

Let’s have a short primer on English usage of English…

Crisps - thin slices of potato fried in oil until crisp right through with no discernable moisture.
Chips - thick batons of potato fried in oil but retaining a moist centre.
French Fries - thin batons of potato unlike anything a proper Englishman would eat - often served in burger joints.

By: Shish

Shish — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:51:36 +0000

That’s a very interesting article, especially this bit:

“the U.K. government was told by Europe’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, to entirely refund Marks & Spencer Group Plc more than 20 years of sales duty charged on chocolate-covered tea cakes.”

Since the tax was 17.5%, that’s no trivial amount. But Marks & Spencer didn’t actually PAY the tax - they just COLLECTED it from the customers and passed it on. So now they get to keep it? I suppose they deserve some reward for being one of the few organizations to impose a little humiliation on the UK’s obnoxious tax collectors.

By: Neatoramawontsendmeapassword

Neatoramawontsendmeapassword — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:32:59 +0000

I meant “rice flour”. That’s what I get for trying to type when I’m only half awake.

By: Neatoramawontsendmeapassword

Neatoramawontsendmeapassword — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:31:27 +0000

Doesn’t anyone read ingredients anymore? Pringles are NOT just potatoes.

From the Pringles website:

Ingredients: dried potatoes, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, and/or sunflower oil), rice flower, wheat starch, maltodextrin, salt, and dextrose.

I haven’t been able to eat Pringles for years due to a wheat allergy. I can eat regular potato chips just fine, though.

By: Camilla

Camilla — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:07:26 +0000

“They also claim the snack isn’t made like a chip since it is cooked from baked dough, not potato slices,”

says the article.

By: LH

LH — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:32:14 +0000

They must be mashed potatoes molded, there´s no other way.

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:25:23 +0000

For the States, this is nothing new actually. Many years ago (1970s), Pringles U.S. ads carried the tagline “New Fangled Potato Chip”, but competitors whined and the Federal Government ruled they couldn’t call them potato chips. If you look on the can, they are currently labelled “potato crisps”.

By: SenorMysterioso

SenorMysterioso — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:17:23 +0000

Im inclined to think that a potato chip has to be a slice of potato. I think pringles are mashed up potatoes molded into the shape of a chip

By: Anthony

Anthony — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:21:45 +0000

French fries are made from potatoes.